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The Reykjavík Grapevine<br />
Issue 16 — 2015<br />
25<br />
TRAVEL<br />
Car provided by Hertz car rental,<br />
book car at www.hertz.is<br />
Distance to Egilsstaðir<br />
146 km<br />
7. Dagverðarnes<br />
By the time you reach the sign to<br />
Dagverðarnes, you will have no doubt<br />
noticed the geography has started<br />
getting interesting again. You pass<br />
through an Icelandic forest that’s actually<br />
pretty big, with trees way too close<br />
together, as is the Traditional Icelandic<br />
Way. There’s also a cool grave/memorial<br />
thing near Vogur.<br />
Mountains! They’re back! Okay, turn<br />
down the dirt track to Dagverðarnes.<br />
Our Mini seriously struggled with this<br />
road, with massive jagged rocks ready<br />
to tear the bottom of your car right off.<br />
We are irresponsible, so we carried on.<br />
Boy, was it worth it.<br />
The long dirt track will take you<br />
down to a pretty spectacular archipelago<br />
of little islands and lakes. It’s<br />
worth taking slow, as it’s actually a very<br />
unique area geographically. Stop and<br />
have a sandwich and look at the distant<br />
mountains and the birds or something.<br />
Neither me nor Art, the photographer,<br />
are particularly superstitious, but we<br />
felt a very strange change in energy in<br />
this area, No joke. It’s pretty magical.<br />
At the end of the road, there’s an<br />
old church and a house. I don’t know if<br />
anyone lives at the house. There wasn’t<br />
anyone there when we were there. Be<br />
respectful and leave stuff alone anyway.<br />
You can’t enter the church alone<br />
as there is a massive circular boulder<br />
blocking the door (why are people always<br />
locking Jesus in with big circular<br />
boulders? who left the boulder there?),<br />
but the area is worth wandering around.<br />
There’s sheep shit, small beaches, a<br />
graveyard, and some mysterious tracks.<br />
There are strange things afoot in<br />
Dagverðarnes. Don’t disturb the magical<br />
peace, really. Forces much bigger than you<br />
are at work here.<br />
8. Rock hole—picnic!<br />
Once you’re back on the main road,<br />
head west to a passage through the<br />
rocks. It’s a bit like that lame Pod Race<br />
valley in Star Wars Episode I, but smaller.<br />
There’s a picnic table here. Have a<br />
picnic and look out at the place you just<br />
left. Walk through the rock hole and<br />
feel the wind on your skin.<br />
We turned around here for time<br />
purposes, but you can also carry on<br />
through the rock hole and travel around<br />
the rest of the peninsula.<br />
Who put the road through the rocks?<br />
How did it get here before we had an app<br />
to do it? Some say an ice giant snorted<br />
a line of rocks, which in ice giant land is<br />
sort of like crack. Is the crack the one you<br />
snort? I wouldn’t know. Either way, there’s<br />
been a road through the rocks ever since.<br />
9. Laugar,<br />
Sælingsdalur valley—swim!<br />
Laugar is said to be the home of the<br />
lady of the tracts of land, and up on the<br />
hill is her ORIGINAL POOL! It’s a really<br />
good pool—it’s free to use, relatively<br />
natural, and looks cool as well. There<br />
are a number of great hiking routes<br />
into the mountains from this spot. If<br />
you have time, go for a hike, then have<br />
a swim. There’s also a campsite here if<br />
you want to camp.<br />
The valley here is the setting of<br />
many Sagas, in particular 'Laxdæla<br />
saga', one of the only Sagas to feature a<br />
woman as the main character—Guðrún<br />
Ósvífursdóttir.<br />
If you look out from the hill by Laugar,<br />
you can just about envision all that medieval<br />
high school drama taking place here.<br />
Well, it’s true. It did.<br />
10. Stop for<br />
ice cream again. Why not?<br />
At this point, we started heading back<br />
to Reykjavík. But that doesn’t mean you<br />
have to! You can carry on north from<br />
here up to the Westfjords, or you can<br />
head down to Snæfellsnes. You can go<br />
your own way!<br />
On the way back, stop for ice cream<br />
again at Erpsstaðir. They might look<br />
at you weird. “Why are you back here<br />
again so soon?” they will ask. “Trust<br />
me, I know what I’m doing,” you will say.<br />
If you still have some time left once<br />
you get back to the area around Bifröst,<br />
go and check out Háafell goat centre<br />
and Deildartunguhver (a geothermal<br />
river). Play with some goats. Buy some<br />
goat soap. Eat some fresh local tomatoes<br />
at the river and look at some mist.<br />
It’s all here! What a fun day!<br />
ÍSAFJÖRÐUR<br />
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ARE ONLY 40 MINUTES AWAY<br />
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